Danny Boyle‘s Slumdog Millionaire is “a huge crowd pleaser,” a friend in Telluride wrote me late last night. “The ending pays off big time. The audience went wild. It reminded me of the audience reaction to Juno here last year.” Are you getting this, John Horn?

Fox Searchlight will open Slumdog Millionaire, which is based on Vikas Swarup‘s novel “Q & A,” on 11.28. The film is slated to show at the soon-to-begin Toronto Film Festival on 11.28.
A Fox Searchlight synopsis reads as follows: “Jamal Malik, an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, is about to experience the biggest day of his life. With the whole nation watching, he is just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India’s Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
“But when the show breaks for the night, police arrest him on suspicion of cheating; how could a street kid know so much?
“Desperate to prove his innocence, Jamal tells the story of his life in the slum where he and his brother grew up, of their adventures together on the road, of vicious encounters with local gangs, and of Latika, the girl he loved and lost. Each chapter of his story reveals the key to the answer to one of the game show’s questions.
“Intrigued by Jamal’s story, the jaded police inspector begins to wonder what a young man with no apparent desire for riches is really doing on this game show?
“When the new day dawns and Jamal returns to answer the final question, the inspector and 60 million viewers are about to find out.”